Meanwhile, Ciaran and Catherine successfully won the respective Mens and Ladies competitions at the Club over Easter and then proceeded to finish in the top five at the Ulster Regional Qualifying held at Rockmount GC.

This saw them then travel to the All Ireland Final held at the K Club last week.

Top prize was the chance to play in the Pro Am at this week’s Irish Open. Despite a fantastic score of 43 points the Kilrea duo were pushed into third place. Nevertheless a fantastic performance proving Kilrea GC can compete with the best in Ireland and the duo enjoyed getting the chance to play on the famous course. The Club’s Pierce Purcell team have started their now annual jaunt through the Ulster section of this 10 man team event.

With two quarterfinals and a Runner Ups berth in the last three years hopes were high of more success. And the Qualifying Round held at Bushfoot GC saw Kilrea romp to top spot with a whopping 13 shot margin over the field. This success saw them paired to face the might of Royal Portrush GC in the 1st Matchplay Round back at Bushfoot on Sunday past.

Undetered by their illustrious opponents the Kilrea team under the stewardship of Joe McCloskey eased to success with the first three pairings all winning comfortably, whilst the other two games were both up when called in. The pairs were: Seamus Quinn & Gabriel McTaggart 2 & 1; Clark Rees & David Gordon 3 & 2; Eamon Cassley & Dominic Kealey 5 & 4; Matt Roxborough & Seamus Gillan 1 up; Kevin Kidd & Billy Millar 2 up.